critical illness cover Archives | Oliver Asset Management

Apathy or action – can you really afford to ignore your business vulnerabilities?

May 24, 2013

closed There is no question that business protection considerations are a hot topic right now.

In the last few weeks there have been several discussions launched on Linkedin asking what small businesses are neglecting in terms of business protection and whether or not business owners are sticking their head in the sand when it comes to business protection.

There is a massive gap in the business protection market among UK business owners and some of the recent statistics from Legal & General in support of the Every Business Matters campaign on Unbiased.co.uk are quite staggering but not unsurprising.

There are just too many businesses out there who have insufficient or no cover in place to allow operations to continue on the death or serious illness of a shareholder, partner or key person.

I don’t think it’s fair to say business owners are sticking their head in the sand with regards to this issue, many are well aware of the seriousness of this level of risk and the financial havoc death or critical illness can bring on firm.

The issue is perhaps lack of guidance and education. Directors, Partners and Key People are busy doing what they do best on a day to day basis, growing their companies, developing their brand and making the venture a profitable as possible. Finding the time to discuss, consider and understand what their business protection needs are, is often a hard thing to do for no reason other than they are too busy doing other things.

Add to this, the general resistance amongst many advisers to sell business protection because they believe it is too complex or they don’t understand all the nuances of the cover and you have a great recipe for avoidance and apathy across the business sector.

I believe we have a responsibility to support business owners, to help them identify where their vulnerabilities lie and to explain the process to put the correct cover in place with the appropriate legal documentation.

It doesn’t have to be complicated or painful, taking the time to evaluate a business, identify key areas of risk and providing a solution is a tremendously rewarding exercise.

We have helped many businesses over the years to put the correct planning in place and time and again when the exercise is complete the owners reaffirm the process has given them a real peace of mind and sense of control. They feel able to move on with the day to day development of the business safe in the knowledge that all their hard work to create a business with value is underpinned with the correct protection.

If you have any concerns with respect to your business or you would simply like more information on business protection then we would love to hear from you.

Take action and don’t let apathy expose your business to unnecessary risk!

Dr C.

Protection – can I really afford it?

April 19, 2013

Following on from my last blog I wanted to pick up on the cost of protecting yourself and your loved ones. It’s the age old objection to having the proper cover in place – “I can’t afford it, it’s more expensive than I thought it would be!”

The cost of cover depends on many factors, age, health, occupation, sum assured, term required, and yes it can be expensive depending on the requirement but we appreciate that budget has to be a factor in considering what can be put in place.

All too often people discount having cover in place as they feel the cost will be prohibitive and they don’t seek advice on what they could actually achieve within their budget. Then there are those that don’t feel there is any spare budget available to put towards protecting themselves and their family. I think if we all took a serious hard look at our weekly spends we might we might be surprised at what budget could be made available with a little careful planning.

In the average week we all like our little treats, a nice frothy coffee, a take-away, glass of wine or pint of beer, the odd magazine or newspaper, premade sandwich, or jumping in a taxi at the end of the night to make it home quicker.

Based on average current costs* if in a given week I had 3 coffees, bought a magazine, a couple of premade sandwiches , a takeaway, a couple of glasses of wine and a taxi ride home after my takeaway that could equate to weekly spend of £46.00 or £199.33 per month. It all adds up.

If we all took a serious look at the monthly spends on little luxuries we could make an immediate saving which could be put towards getting the right cover in place.

If I cut back a coffee a week and drop the take-away meals to once a month I make an immediate saving of £35 on average. What would £35 buy in terms of cover?

A single 28 year old male could have life cover of £120,000 for 30 years for as little as £30.44, a couple both aged 38 could have £220,138 of life cover for 20 years starting from £35.00 per month.

Still think it’s too expensive?

Get in touch with us today for your own personal calculation to see how your monthly luxuries add up and what cover you could buy with a little clever reallocation of your financial resources.

It only takes a few minutes to give you peace of mind for the rest of your life, can you really afford not to do anything?

Dr Claire Armstrong

*Based on Bright Grey’s online Lifestyle Calculator as of April 2013.

Life cover, it’s about more than insurance

April 4, 2013

When it comes to protecting ourselves and our loved ones from the worst happening, whether it’s a critical illness or untimely death, we all know some sort of life cover or critical illness cover is required to ease the financial strain of these events.

Time and again couples and families are left feeling the financial and emotional pressure because the cover was never put in place. It was never the right time to look at it, they were always too busy, they didn’t think they could afford it, they didn’t see the need to buy insurance as it never gives anything back.

However, there is a shift in the industry now towards providing more than pure insurance as the customer wants to know what’s in it for them, what are the additional benefits and why should they have the cover in place.

Apart from providing peace of mind that your loved ones will be taken care off on your demise a handful of providers are now looking to enhance the benefits available to you while you live a healthy life and in fact they work hard to ensure you stay fit and healthy while saving money.

Pru Protect is a front runner with their Vitality and Vitality Plus schemes which allow their policy holders to follow a Vitality cover healthier living programme which not only could add years to your life but reduce the need to claim for a critical illness. Their Vitality programme doesn’t just help clients stay healthy but rewards them for their efforts too by means of reducing the premium paid for the cover as they accrue Vitality points.

They also offer discounts with their health partners for half price health screening, discounts on Champneys spa breaks and even member deals with Cineworld, Vue, Legoland and Thorpe Park to name a few.

Pru Protect recognise that just selling insurance isn’t going to cut it in today’s climate and that everyone wants to know their money is being well spent with immediate benefits in return.

Bright Grey are also in on the act, offering a free Helping Hand service with their cover which is aimed at helping policy owners and their families cope with the trauma of loss or serious illness. helping hand pack

They offer a support service at a time when it is most needed whether its assigning a RED ARC nurse to help you come to terms with your illness, guiding you through the questions you need to ask a consultant or offering bereavement counselling for the family left behind.

They can help with getting you back on your feet with alternative therapies if conventional medicine isn’t the answer and provide rehabilitative support to get you back to work.

Just this morning I had a call from our contact at Aviva to let us know they have now launched their own RED ARC nurse service with their life and critical illness cover and in addition to this they also offer a free 2^nd opinion on your medical diagnosis.

red arc assured There has never been a better time to review your protection or get something in place if you have been putting it off. It’s about more than just insurance these days and there are a range of additional enhancements and benefits at your finger tips so why not get in touch today to find out more.

If you’re still thinking it’s going to be too expensive then watch this space as I will be blogging again shortly to demonstrate the real cost of cover and how there is something for every budget.

Dr Claire Armstrong

The fundamental need for protection

June 7, 2011

Reading an article in the paper the other day reminded me that one of the most basic functions of my job is in ensuring that clients are adequately protected with life and critical illness cover. This is arguably the most important but often the least appreciated part of my work.

We all have stories of untimely death or serious illness and how families been devastated but have survived because of having financial protection in place.

I’m not going to go into all the details of what plan, who with or what type of cover at this stage but I am going to point out some areas that must be addressed.

I will not be alone in noting that clients have a reluctance to paying for something “they may not need” and tend to try and talk the cost of life and critical illness cover down to a budget.

We use Voyant cash flow modelling to determine the actual financial cost of someone dying early or suffering a critical illness which tends to bring some serious reality to the levels of cover needed.

Often clients will have some protection in place (flogged by a bank in many instances) which the level of cover bears no resemblance to the actual level of risk. There are a lot of fans of nice round numbers out there and clients are usually at a loss as to why a particular level of cover has been arrived at.

Establishing with clients the real cost of early death or serious illness by more rigorous methodology is paramount and the costs of providing this cover are then seen in the right context.

I find that people do understand the need for cover and are much happier to have the right level of protection in place once they see the real amount of money required to make sure their family will be financially protected if the unthinkable happens.

Once we have the right numbers established, then using the appropriate trusts to ensure swift dispatch of any monies in the event of claim should be a given.The option of using Relevant Life policies were possible also adds a very welcome 20% corporation tax saving on premiums.

So to summarise, don’t leave it to chance; make sure the amount of cover is relevant to the level of risk and get the proper amount and type of cover you need.

If you need us to give you a more accurate figure as to how much cover you might need, contact Malcolm Stewart our Voyant guru on 0131 273 5202 and he’d be happy to help out.

Roland Oliver